Are there Snowden sympathizers within the Obama admin?

I've been looking through the live news on the Guardian this evening, checking out all the latest developments, and a couple of things have had me wondering whether there's possibly a few Snowden sympathizers within the Obama administration attempting to do damage to the campaign to hunt him down.

First of all, the Obama administration could have charged him with a lesser offense, more plausibly secured his extradition back to the US...

the Obama administration blew it by bringing charges under the Espionage Act, which theoretically gave Hong Kong a way to invoke the political exception to any extradition request

So it seems that some of the most experienced and expensive political advisers on the planet when it comes to international law overlooked this.

But it gets juicier than that too...

The Hong Kong justice secretary did not invoke a political exception when explaining why Snowden had not been extradited. He said the problem was that Snowden's name was spelled differently on various forms submitted by the United States.

They spelled his name wrong!?
I don't know about you guys, but that sounds to me as though there are people in the Obama admin deliberately trying to make his capture more difficult.

Now I know that there may be members here claiming that this whole thing is an elaborate ploy, or that Snowden is playing a role in a larger NSA/CIA plan, but this makes no sense. You don't expose your intelligence gathering methods to the world just for some kind of plot. There would be other ways to achieve a goal without destroying something you have invested trillions of $'s in and risk your own public turning against the government.

There might be some also who think that the Obama admin really IS stupid enough to make these mistakes. But come on, spelling his name wrong?! This is not plausible to me in the slightest.

I already had suspicion that the government is scared, not of Snowden but of the NSA. I am already half convinced that there was a coup on 9/11 and that Bush basically handed over the government to this secret cabal of military, intelligence and corporate interests. I already pretty much expect that we'll see a leak showing the politicians have been blackmailed and controlled using information gathered by the NSA.

So, with all that in mind, could the Obama administration, or aspects of it, be deliberately sabotaging their own hunt for Snowden because they want this shadow government to be exposed and removed?

Your thoughts?

That's a good conspiracy theory. I have no idea if it will pan out. But it's a good one to think about. Considering how deeply involved all the 'secret spilling' is ... I"m sure that there are a lot of political things happening behind the scenes that we won't ever know about.

The U.S. Government is not united. Not even the parties amongst themselves are united. Snowden may even be an agent of some U.S. Government faction that wanted this stuff exposed. The idea that everyone in the Government has the same views and is working on the same agenda and thats its only "Us (People) vs. Them (Government)" is silly. There are a lot of internal battles going on. So your theory may very well be right.

i dont think so

too many wanna be good boy snitches appeared under obama

undermining lil punks

im really irritated by snowden, putin and all the wikileaks tribe....how is this freedom of speech??

the dude said one good thing.. then followed up with severe bs

cant stand him



BTW - this is bigger than being just obamas problem....
this guy is jumping from china, to russia, venezuala.... cmon, thats a defectee/ spy... im talking espionage... topped with a bit of blackmail.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
The U.S. Government is not united. Not even the parties amongst themselves are united. Snowden may even be an agent of some U.S. Government faction that wanted this stuff exposed. The idea that everyone in the Government has the same views and is working on the same agenda and thats its only "Us (People) vs. Them (Government)" is silly. There are a lot of internal battles going on. So your theory may very well be right.

edit on 25-6-2013 by Skyfloating because: (no reason given)

This is exactly what I mean. I think there are likely to be factions, some supportive of the NSA because they're just scared about what might be released about them, or they're sympathizers to the shadow regime because of basic self-interest. But I think it's also likely that there are genuinely clean people behind the scenes who are just as scared of this shadow government as the people should be, and they see this as an opportunity to really bring it down and save the US government from it.

I think most of us know that there are a lot of people in positions of power who have been compromised by their own secrets, and they're basically just working in support of this shadow government because they fear it too. But I think it's also very plausible that people below them, young people who are not yet tainted by the system, who would love to see Snowden expose it all.

It's an interesting concept. I think this is likely to be playing out for a long time, as long as nothing else happens to distract from this story, or prevent Snowden from releasing more.

I guess even if he is somehow stopped, there are likely to be a lot of others in government and in these agencies now thinking about blowing the whistle on what they know too. I hope there are!

Yep the Obama admin is thanking their lucky stars because people are no longer talking about the IRS/AP/Benghazi/ or Holder lying.

The only thing people want to talk about now is Snowden is so 'dreamy'.

I think the answer is much simpler. Countries around the world are putting two fingers up to the US. Where in the past if The US asked for something then it was usually done. Not anymore. Look at the case of Garry McKinnon as just one example.

Originally posted by alldaylong
I think the answer is much simpler. Countries around the world are putting two fingers up to the US. Where in the past if The US asked for something then it was usually done. Not anymore. Look at the case of Garry McKinnon as just one example.

ya get me!!

the guy should be too hot to touch... instead they are playing wendy house with him.

time to get firm i think... the guy disclosed unnecessary info in his pursuit for freedom...he said way too much.